Diagnostic Challenges of Uncommon Paediatric Head and Neck Masses- A Case Series

Abstract

Paediatric head and neck masses pose diagnostic challenge to the clinicians owing to the wide spectrum of lesions including congenital (developmental), inflammatory and neoplastic lesions. In the present case series, uncommon paediatric head and neck mass lesions that were diagnosed in a tertiary care hospital over a period of three years from January 2017 to December 2019, had been included, emphasising on the diagnostic challenges encountered. First case was of Cervical Chondrocutaneous Branchial Remnant (CCBR) that was misdiagnosed as branchial cyst clinically. Second case was a lymphoepithelial cyst that masqueraded as an acute suppurative lymphadenitis in Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) due to florid inflammation. Third case was an aggressive poorly differentiated malignant neoplasm of left nasal cavity namely Nuclear protein in Testis (NUT) carcinoma that had to be differentiated from several other small round blue cell tumours. Fourth was a case of lipoblastoma which could be mistaken for myxoid liposarcoma. The last two cases were vascular tumours, one of them was juvenile capillary hemangioma with a benign clinical course while the other was an intermediate grade tumour namely kaposiform hemangioendothelioma. A wholesome clinical, radiological and pathological evaluation will help to solve the diagnostic dilemmas in this group of lesions.

Keywords

• branchial cleft
• children
• congenital
• cyst
• tumour